I thought my day would be busier, but it’s settled into a relaxing mode that makes enticing just a wee bit of blogging. So that’s what I’m doing here — a wee bit of blogging.

First on the agenda is a freaky “pigs flying” moment from MSNBC. NewsBusters caught a panel on the Chris Hayes show, including a writer from the far-Left Nation, expressing some queasiness about the way in which gay rights activists have been targeting individuals. I’m sure the MSNBC/Nation crew will recover quickly from this brief lapse into sanity, but it sure does make for interesting reading.

I cited David Archibald this morning for his chilling look at the potential famine dogging Egypt’s heels. I’m citing him this afternoon because of his trenchant post about solar activity and the scientific community’s resolute refusal to acknowledge the data lest it clash with their anthropogenic global warming narrative.

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I think there are few students of Tudor history who don’t prefer Queen Elizabeth I to Mary I. Elizabeth was charismatic, beautiful, witty, and one of the first people in history to hold that a person’s religious beliefs should be private. By contrast, Mary, although personally kind and warm, was lumpy, unattractive, often pitiable, and religiously fanatic. It was she who brought auto de fe to England in her effort to turn back the Protestant reformation. She succeeded only in creating martyrs and died knowing that her attempts to reinstate Catholicism had failed. For her sake, though, I hope that there is a conscience afterlife and that she is enjoying the spectacle of a liberal Church of England denuding itself of parishioners even as the more stringent Catholic church witnesses an increase in its numbers.

My personal history helps me understand why the C of E is failing, despite abasing itself ever more before every Leftist social and political trend. Although I grew up in a non-religious household, when it came to Passover, my family went all out. We did the entire Passover in both Hebrew and English, complete with every ritual. Even as children, we were expected to participate fully. When I was an adult and far from home, a friend invited me to her family’s Passover. They were reform. The ritual was conducted in English, although the language wouldn’t have mattered, because no one was paying attention. There was no reverence for this ancient celebration of the world’s first slave revolt. I was bored and dismayed. My feeling then, as it is now, is “If you’re going to be religious, be religious. Unless you invest religion with meaning, why bother?”

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Occasionally, the New York Times shows why people still respect its writing. At the very bottom of a movie review, where it sums up the reason the movie is given a specific rating (e.g., PG or R), the Times has this to say about Make Your Move: “‘Make Your Move’ is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Language, drug and sexual references, brief violence and prurient tap dancing.” “Prurient tap dancing?” Is that Fred Astaire I hear rolling in his grave?